What Do You Do With A Guy Like Doherty?
I’ve been kicking around this idea in my head for a bit, since at least December, when SMU joined the Big East: what does Matt Doherty have to do to keep his job?
Obviously, the bar is pretty low for SMU basketball. Last year’s 20-15 record was the best in Doherty’s five-year tenure, which also included nine-win and 10-win seasons.The fact that he’s still around (with a 66-88 record coming into this season) is a testament to the expectations at Moody Coliseum.
The jump to the Big East, though, means games against Connecticut and Georgetown, not Rice and East Carolina. And while this year’s squad is 9-6, a few facts:
– Two of the wins were over non-Division I teams, including one (Dallas Christian) that doesn’t even compete in NCAA athletics.
– The team is averaging 63.3 points per game, good for 271st in the country (out of 344 D-I teams), and grabs only 31 rebounds a game, 315th in the country.
I’m not an SMU alum, so I don’t have a dog in this fight. And Doherty did land this guy. But as the school continues to grow, and make its way towards the Big East, what will this program have to do to become a viable option for recruits?
Yeah, it’s pretty amazing he still has a job. Unlike football, it only takes a couple of decent classes to turn the program around. I know it takes a lot more to recruit at a school like SMU with no history of basketball success. But given his name and the fact that he took UNC to the Final Four, Doherty has been a bust.
What do you do? You support him, that’s what you do. YOu attend SMU games, cheer for the squad. Give them a home court advantage. Stop complaining and start supporting. He is a great man, with a wonderful wife and two kids at HPISD. They support this community and even bring players to church! Sometimes there is more to success than the Win.
Go Do!
He may be a good guy but he is a bad coach. I’ve been an SMU hoops fan since Sonny Allen was coach. Last year’s good record was also built on playing a terrible schedule. While I am excited about the football team joining a BCS conference, the bigger attraction to me is the potential to attract a decent hoops coach who wants to play the big boys. Doh has been a huge bust.
I was so excited when they hired Matt Doherty. I really thought that by now, they’d be in the upper echelon of C-USA, partly because I figured he’d be able to recruit better than they had in the past, and partly because I figured that learning under Roy Williams, and learning from some past mistakes, that he would make his teams better. But I’ve not seen that. Mbargorba is only Top 100 on one recruiting service I’ve seen, and the other two recruits for next year are not ranked in any of the main lists. So it’s been a disappointment. Getting a coach with a big name had me more optimistic than that.
Still, I like that they tried. Seemed to have more success with June Jones, but I hope they try again whenever they decide that Doherty has had a long enough trial. Or better yet, I hope he DOES turn it around before that happens. But it doesn’t look like that will be happening in the next two or three years.
Bright spot is that it will be fun to have some good teams coming into Moody again in the future.
@SMU Fan- NCAA basketball is a bit different than YMCA. This is where administrators, coaches, and players have to put on their big boy pants every day. Merely being a nice guy with a nice family doesn’t mean a thing. I’d rather have an a-hole that wins.
the point about being a good family man was a p.s. the truth is attendance stinks, just like in football… if the community would rally and support this team maybe they would have a chance.
Maybe you havent heard of the PCA – a movement underfoot to both win and be a good guy. Even in the NCAA.
See you at the next game??? I bet you;ll be the one telling the refs to go back to the Y???